This monumental treatise from the 13th century sums up and organizes what had gone before, and in doing so provides both master plan and basic topics for subsequent musicological work, even to the present day. The combination of Devanagari text (from the Adyar edition) running concurrently with English translation, commentary, and footnotes, makes the work very convenient. Dr. Shringy's English translation and commentary, prepared under the expert supervision of Dr. (Miss) Prem Lata Sharma, is more devoted to a direct explication of Sarngadeva's verses. Its guiding principles (as evidenced in this first volume) are two. First, terms and ideas in the treatise are set in the larger general frame of Indian Sanskritic culture - as for instance a presentation of the Tantric metaphysics behind the doctrine of sound, which Sarngadeva took over and elaborated from Matanga's Brhaddesi. Second, complex technical principles are explicated in full - as for instance a demonstration of how to work with the 5040 permutations of kuta-tana "note-series" as Sarngadeva all too briefly set them forth. The work fulfils the urgent need for a standard and authentic work on the theory and practice of ancient Indian music in English.

The translation provides English equivalents for technical terms, makes constant parenthetical reference to Sanskrit originals in transliteration. Contains a detailed word index, with multiple senses distinguished, and a glossary.

About the Author:

Dr. R. K. Shringy received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Indian Philosophy and Religion from Banaras Hindu University in 1974. He worked as Research Assistant in the Department of Musicology, Banaras Hindu University. His published work is Philosophy of J. Krishnamurti: A systematic Study (1977, 1988). He died in 1983.

Dr. Prem Lata Sharma was Professor of Musicology, Banaras Hindu University (retired in 1987) and Vice-Chancellor, Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya, Khairagarh. She also published the critical editions of Rasa vilasa (1972) and Eklingamahatmyam (1976).

Preface

I was inspired to undertake the present project of
translating Sangitaratnakara into English by two factors viz.
the inadequacy of the available English translation of the 1st
chapter by C. Kunhan Raja, and the education and training
that I received from Dr. (Miss) Premlata Sharma, Head of
the Department of Musicology, Banaras Hindu University,
while I was her student for Diploma in Music Appreciation
during 1967-69. Even though the textual study of Sangita-
ratnakara was not, strictly speaking, a part of the curriculum,
she was kind and generous enough to recognise the special
position of some of the students, who were also the members
of the staff of the department, and to extend to them the
benefit of her wide learning and research experience by way
of initiating them into the art of interpreting original Sanskrit
texts on music with the help of available commentaries, and
luckily I was -one of them. So, even though I had been
working as Research Assistant ill the Department of Musico-
logy and in the College of Music & Fine Arts prior to the
formation of the department in 1966, for about ten years or
so, Sanskrit texts on music could become meaningful to and
enjoyable for me only after I could avail or this opportunity
of learning the intricacies, the technicalities and the symbo-
lism of the language of Sangita-sastra from Dr. Sharma.
Hence, the need for a music-oriented, topic-wise, technically
precise English translation of Sangita-ratnakara written in a
flowing prose style unhindered by frequent Sanskrit inter-
jections and accompanied by all elaborate and lucid com-
mentary, was felt by me not as a scholar of Sanskrit but as a
student of Musicology. A detailed note on the method and
the manner of the translation has been written separately
pointing out the peculiarities of the execution of the work.

In 1970, the University Grants Commission introduced
a scheme of writing university level books and monographs,
and I took the earliest opportunity of putting forth a proposal
of writing an English translation of Sangita-ratnakara in three
parts related to music (i. e. excluding the chapter on dancing)
under the expert guidance and supervision of Dr. (Miss)
Prem Lata Sharma who readily agreed to sponsor the
proposal. And the U. C. C. too was kind and gracious
enough to grant me a Research Fellowship for three years to
undertake this project.

I am happy to say that as the result of the combined
efforts of the U.G.C., which provided me the material means
to pursue my researches and writing unhindered, the autho-
rities of the Banaras Hindu University who granted me leave
to work on the project, and Dr. Prem Lata Sharma who has
very affectionately, very carefully and very meticulously
nursed the whole product, and Messrs. Motilal Banarsidass,
who readily agreed to publish this work, it has become
possible for me to present this first volume comprising
Chapter I related to the treatment of svara, in the service of
the learned scholars and the learning students; and I hope it
will be found to be of greater help in understanding Sarnga-
deva, whose work Sangita-ratnakara is a landmark in the
history of Sangita-sastra .

Though the translation was originally planned and
written out with an elaborate commentary and critical as
well as literary annotations with a view to making it self-
sufficient, it has been considered necessary, convenient and
useful to give the Sanskrit text as well along with it. This
was considered necessary firstly because the translation is
presented in a topic-wise order dealing with homogeneous
ideas and concepts in convenient paragraphs in order to
make the reading more intelligible and easy to grasp, and
secondly because it was found unavoidable to modify some
of the readings of the text as published by the Adyar Library
in view of the technical accuracy of the readings available
in the Anandasrarna edition or other comparable texts like
Sangitaraja of Rana Kumbha and so on. Thus, the Sanskrit
text has also been partly re-edited in so far as the arrange-
ment of some of the verses has been modified to correspond
with the paragraphs as arranged in the translation and also
in so far as some modifications have also been made in the
text here and there, though very sparingly,

Introduction

1. Prefatory Remarks
If one were to name a single text of Sangita-sastra which
embodies the earlier tradition (laksana, body of terms and
concepts) in remarkable detail and at the same time incor-
porates contemporary developments, which has been cons-
tantly referred to in musical and literary texts in the
subsequent centuries, which has been 'commented upon
profusely which has not only been looked upon with awe
and reverence, but has also occasionally been the target of
reproach born of frustration, which wielded great influence
over later tradition, one would undoubtedly name the
Sangita-ratnakara (hereafter referred to as S. R.) of Sarnga-
deva.

S. R. has been known as saptadhyayi on the model of
Panini's Astadhyayi and has for at least six centuries syrnboli-
sed the ancient tradition of laksana. Earlier texts do not
appear to have been directly studied by most of the auhtors
of laksana in the subsequent centuries. Keen interest in the
direct studies of earlier works like Bharata's Natyasastra,
Dattila's Dattitam, Matanga's Brhaddesi, Abhinavagupta's
Abhinavabharati, Somesvara's Manasollasa and Nanyadeva's
Bharatabhasya, has emerged only in the latter half of the 20th.
century and S. R. has served as a constant frame of reference
in this study. Hence S. R. has re-emerged as a landmark
in Sangita-sastra, illuminating its ancient and medieval tradi-
tion like a Dehali-pradipa.

2. Date and Identity of the Author
Sarngadeva introduces himself as belonging to a family
which hailed from Kashmir. Kashmir is the glorious land
of Sanskrit learning that dominated for centuries the various
branches of study; the land that gave birth to a versatile
genius like Abhinavagupta preceded by a host of commen-
tators" on N.S. and Anandavardhana, Matrgupta, Mammata
etc. Sarngadeva must have inherited from his father and
grandfather the rich tradition of various disciplines. He
must also have been acquainted with the laksya of Kashmir
indirectly and with that of the Deccan, where the family
settled, directly. In a way the entire sastra (source of
theoretical knowledge) and sampradaya (practical tradition)
of the earlier periods must have been accessible to him.

In Deccan, the family lived under the patronage of the
Yadava dynasty at Devagiri (present Daulatabad).This
dynasty was formally established by King Bhillama in 1145
A. D, It is during his reign that Sarngadeva's grandfather
Bhaskara appears to have shifted from Kashmir to Devagiri.
One wonders what could have prompted Bhaskara to leave
his motherland and move to a distant foreign region. Was
it the political persecution which forced him to flee and seek
refuge in the other end of the land ? Or was it the special
patronage extended by the prince of a distant land to him
because of his fame that attracted him to the Yadava court ?
P. V. Sharma feels that although there is no conclusive
evidence, it may be that the King of Devagiri, impressed by
Bhaskara's scholarship in Ayurveda, invited him to his court as
a royal physician. Besides, Bhaskara's ,son Sodhala was also
appointed the Accountant General (Srikaranagrani) in King
Bhillama's court.

King Bhillama died in 1193 A. D. His son Jaitrapala
or Jaitugi ascended the throne and ruled for a short period.
He was succedeed by Singhana in 1200 A. D. who was not
only a very powerful king but also a great patron of arts,
literature, and science. It is during his reign that Sarngadeva
who continued in his father's (Sodhala's) post as the Royal
Accountant, seems to have composed his works. Having
had great scholars for his ancestors, Samgadeva's heredity
must have provided him with a very rich 'samskara-punja’
(cultural heritage) combining the northern or north-western
and southern traditions in learning and arts. Along with
his study of Sangita he appears to have carried on the family
profession of Ayurveda. He had also written a book on
Ayurveda entitled 'Adhyatmaviveka’ to which he himself refers.
This work is not available. Besides this and S. R. no other
work of Sarngadeva is known.

This monumental treatise from the 13th century sums up and organizes what had gone before, and in doing so provides both master plan and basic topics for subsequent musicological work, even to the present day. The combination of Devanagari text (from the Adyar edition) running concurrently with English translation, commentary, and footnotes, makes the work very convenient. Dr. Shringy's English translation and commentary, prepared under the expert supervision of Dr. (Miss) Prem Lata Sharma, is more devoted to a direct explication of Sarngadeva's verses. Its guiding principles (as evidenced in this first volume) are two. First, terms and ideas in the treatise are set in the larger general frame of Indian Sanskritic culture - as for instance a presentation of the Tantric metaphysics behind the doctrine of sound, which Sarngadeva took over and elaborated from Matanga's Brhaddesi. Second, complex technical principles are explicated in full - as for instance a demonstration of how to work with the 5040 permutations of kuta-tana "note-series" as Sarngadeva all too briefly set them forth. The work fulfils the urgent need for a standard and authentic work on the theory and practice of ancient Indian music in English.

The translation provides English equivalents for technical terms, makes constant parenthetical reference to Sanskrit originals in transliteration. Contains a detailed word index, with multiple senses distinguished, and a glossary.

About the Author:

Dr. R. K. Shringy received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Indian Philosophy and Religion from Banaras Hindu University in 1974. He worked as Research Assistant in the Department of Musicology, Banaras Hindu University. His published work is Philosophy of J. Krishnamurti: A systematic Study (1977, 1988). He died in 1983.

Dr. Prem Lata Sharma was Professor of Musicology, Banaras Hindu University (retired in 1987) and Vice-Chancellor, Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya, Khairagarh. She also published the critical editions of Rasa vilasa (1972) and Eklingamahatmyam (1976).

Preface

I was inspired to undertake the present project of
translating Sangitaratnakara into English by two factors viz.
the inadequacy of the available English translation of the 1st
chapter by C. Kunhan Raja, and the education and training
that I received from Dr. (Miss) Premlata Sharma, Head of
the Department of Musicology, Banaras Hindu University,
while I was her student for Diploma in Music Appreciation
during 1967-69. Even though the textual study of Sangita-
ratnakara was not, strictly speaking, a part of the curriculum,
she was kind and generous enough to recognise the special
position of some of the students, who were also the members
of the staff of the department, and to extend to them the
benefit of her wide learning and research experience by way
of initiating them into the art of interpreting original Sanskrit
texts on music with the help of available commentaries, and
luckily I was -one of them. So, even though I had been
working as Research Assistant ill the Department of Musico-
logy and in the College of Music & Fine Arts prior to the
formation of the department in 1966, for about ten years or
so, Sanskrit texts on music could become meaningful to and
enjoyable for me only after I could avail or this opportunity
of learning the intricacies, the technicalities and the symbo-
lism of the language of Sangita-sastra from Dr. Sharma.
Hence, the need for a music-oriented, topic-wise, technically
precise English translation of Sangita-ratnakara written in a
flowing prose style unhindered by frequent Sanskrit inter-
jections and accompanied by all elaborate and lucid com-
mentary, was felt by me not as a scholar of Sanskrit but as a
student of Musicology. A detailed note on the method and
the manner of the translation has been written separately
pointing out the peculiarities of the execution of the work.

In 1970, the University Grants Commission introduced
a scheme of writing university level books and monographs,
and I took the earliest opportunity of putting forth a proposal
of writing an English translation of Sangita-ratnakara in three
parts related to music (i. e. excluding the chapter on dancing)
under the expert guidance and supervision of Dr. (Miss)
Prem Lata Sharma who readily agreed to sponsor the
proposal. And the U. C. C. too was kind and gracious
enough to grant me a Research Fellowship for three years to
undertake this project.

I am happy to say that as the result of the combined
efforts of the U.G.C., which provided me the material means
to pursue my researches and writing unhindered, the autho-
rities of the Banaras Hindu University who granted me leave
to work on the project, and Dr. Prem Lata Sharma who has
very affectionately, very carefully and very meticulously
nursed the whole product, and Messrs. Motilal Banarsidass,
who readily agreed to publish this work, it has become
possible for me to present this first volume comprising
Chapter I related to the treatment of svara, in the service of
the learned scholars and the learning students; and I hope it
will be found to be of greater help in understanding Sarnga-
deva, whose work Sangita-ratnakara is a landmark in the
history of Sangita-sastra .

Though the translation was originally planned and
written out with an elaborate commentary and critical as
well as literary annotations with a view to making it self-
sufficient, it has been considered necessary, convenient and
useful to give the Sanskrit text as well along with it. This
was considered necessary firstly because the translation is
presented in a topic-wise order dealing with homogeneous
ideas and concepts in convenient paragraphs in order to
make the reading more intelligible and easy to grasp, and
secondly because it was found unavoidable to modify some
of the readings of the text as published by the Adyar Library
in view of the technical accuracy of the readings available
in the Anandasrarna edition or other comparable texts like
Sangitaraja of Rana Kumbha and so on. Thus, the Sanskrit
text has also been partly re-edited in so far as the arrange-
ment of some of the verses has been modified to correspond
with the paragraphs as arranged in the translation and also
in so far as some modifications have also been made in the
text here and there, though very sparingly,

Introduction

1. Prefatory Remarks
If one were to name a single text of Sangita-sastra which
embodies the earlier tradition (laksana, body of terms and
concepts) in remarkable detail and at the same time incor-
porates contemporary developments, which has been cons-
tantly referred to in musical and literary texts in the
subsequent centuries, which has been 'commented upon
profusely which has not only been looked upon with awe
and reverence, but has also occasionally been the target of
reproach born of frustration, which wielded great influence
over later tradition, one would undoubtedly name the
Sangita-ratnakara (hereafter referred to as S. R.) of Sarnga-
deva.

S. R. has been known as saptadhyayi on the model of
Panini's Astadhyayi and has for at least six centuries syrnboli-
sed the ancient tradition of laksana. Earlier texts do not
appear to have been directly studied by most of the auhtors
of laksana in the subsequent centuries. Keen interest in the
direct studies of earlier works like Bharata's Natyasastra,
Dattila's Dattitam, Matanga's Brhaddesi, Abhinavagupta's
Abhinavabharati, Somesvara's Manasollasa and Nanyadeva's
Bharatabhasya, has emerged only in the latter half of the 20th.
century and S. R. has served as a constant frame of reference
in this study. Hence S. R. has re-emerged as a landmark
in Sangita-sastra, illuminating its ancient and medieval tradi-
tion like a Dehali-pradipa.

2. Date and Identity of the Author
Sarngadeva introduces himself as belonging to a family
which hailed from Kashmir. Kashmir is the glorious land
of Sanskrit learning that dominated for centuries the various
branches of study; the land that gave birth to a versatile
genius like Abhinavagupta preceded by a host of commen-
tators" on N.S. and Anandavardhana, Matrgupta, Mammata
etc. Sarngadeva must have inherited from his father and
grandfather the rich tradition of various disciplines. He
must also have been acquainted with the laksya of Kashmir
indirectly and with that of the Deccan, where the family
settled, directly. In a way the entire sastra (source of
theoretical knowledge) and sampradaya (practical tradition)
of the earlier periods must have been accessible to him.

In Deccan, the family lived under the patronage of the
Yadava dynasty at Devagiri (present Daulatabad).This
dynasty was formally established by King Bhillama in 1145
A. D, It is during his reign that Sarngadeva's grandfather
Bhaskara appears to have shifted from Kashmir to Devagiri.
One wonders what could have prompted Bhaskara to leave
his motherland and move to a distant foreign region. Was
it the political persecution which forced him to flee and seek
refuge in the other end of the land ? Or was it the special
patronage extended by the prince of a distant land to him
because of his fame that attracted him to the Yadava court ?
P. V. Sharma feels that although there is no conclusive
evidence, it may be that the King of Devagiri, impressed by
Bhaskara's scholarship in Ayurveda, invited him to his court as
a royal physician. Besides, Bhaskara's ,son Sodhala was also
appointed the Accountant General (Srikaranagrani) in King
Bhillama's court.

King Bhillama died in 1193 A. D. His son Jaitrapala
or Jaitugi ascended the throne and ruled for a short period.
He was succedeed by Singhana in 1200 A. D. who was not
only a very powerful king but also a great patron of arts,
literature, and science. It is during his reign that Sarngadeva
who continued in his father's (Sodhala's) post as the Royal
Accountant, seems to have composed his works. Having
had great scholars for his ancestors, Samgadeva's heredity
must have provided him with a very rich 'samskara-punja’
(cultural heritage) combining the northern or north-western
and southern traditions in learning and arts. Along with
his study of Sangita he appears to have carried on the family
profession of Ayurveda. He had also written a book on
Ayurveda entitled 'Adhyatmaviveka’ to which he himself refers.
This work is not available. Besides this and S. R. no other
work of Sarngadeva is known.

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